


It Came From The Moon

by Brokenhorn



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Mako - Freeform, Origin Story, Overwatch - Freeform, Roadhog - Freeform, mako rutledge - Freeform, wrecking ball - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2019-11-17 23:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18108371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brokenhorn/pseuds/Brokenhorn
Summary: A comet crashes in the Outback and Roadhog goes out to get the meteorite's metal for himself. However, when the Dingo Drivers, a freelancing gang, gets to the crash site first... Roadhog realizes that there's more to the mysterious meteor than meets the eye.





	1. Chapter 1

A Junker never passed up a chance to scavenge a wreckage or an old site; ingenuity and making something out of ‘nothing’ was in their name, it was their stubborn survivalist nature to take even the most worthless piece of scrap and turn it into something practical. Shredded metal could become anything if it was hammered hard enough; even better if you had access to a forge in Junkertown or even in one of the other scraptowns scattered far across the desert.  
  
The satellite that howled across the sky late last night, a blazing star of red-hot fire, came crashing down hard. The event wasn’t widely treated as supernatural phenomenon, satellites falling from space were rare but not magical in any way; it was good loot, top notch stuff. Rumor said that the Queen’s own javelins were the shards of a meteor that crashed before she wrangled the gangs and conquered the fortress that was now Junkertown.

  
The smoke rising in the early morning was like a call for a shark feeding frenzy. Mako saw the star streak across the sky, patching up the roof to his humble abode on the Junkertown outskirts outside the wall. Less a home and more of a disguise for a hidden stash, but most folk were more scared of the  _ legend _ than the actual flesh and blood Roadhog and left him alone unless they were boozed up on moonshine and wandered over to pick fights. He hopped down to fire up the Beast, his loyal chopper, and letting it roar and stretch its legs as he rode off to where he thought it might have landed.

  
Early dawn came and, with the morning light, Mako honed in on the satellite’s crashsite. He wondered if it was a rock - could fashion himself a new hook from the star metal and tear through any ol’ rusty car easy with alloyed meteorite. It’d make his work easier. Could be a satellite, too, knowing a few of those crashed back during the War but it, as always, was hard to say for sure what survived re-entry into the atmosphere.

  
Mako found a small hilly plateau that overlooked the site, watching the pitch-black smoke billowing up into the sky. The Beast rumbled a low growl as the rider pulled out a pair of binoculars. He peered through them, matching his cycle’s gas-guzzling rumble in thoughtful contemplation as he looked down out onto what was below.

  
He knew he wasn’t going to be the first to come after it, but it never hurt to see what it was and know what to expect than walk in with his back turned towards any danger behind him. It seemed that whatever had crashed here, as the smoke had already started to thin, the fallen satellite had found itself in the middle of one of the freelancing gangs.

  
He knew them by the sound alone, once the dingoes started barking up a storm from the back of a truck. The Dingo Drivers were fierce, cut-throat even, Mako had run into them before; their dingoes were fierce in the arena fights back in Junkertown, not that blood sports and the gladitorial spectacles ever interested him.

  
Slowly, the large Junker made his way down the steep slope. Even from atop the plateau, it became clear that all the black smoke wasn’t from the satellite but something was crushed underneath it.

  
_ One of the Dingo Wagons, maybe. Out late, got crushed, sent a patrol out to investigate. _ Mako concluded.  _ Bad luck, that’s a damn shame. _

_  
_The crash site was flanked by two trucks and a jeep, four of the gang’s dingoes were sniffing around the crater as five gangers were trying to figure out what the hell was this strange outer-space satellite. Two stood over the lip of the sunken crater and the other three were wrangling their own pairs of dingoes, holding the animals back as they tried to jump down into the crater proper.

  
“What’d’ya think it is, Red?” One of them asked, a gangly looking man spoke up with a bright neon-green mohawk.

  
“Not sure, Flip. Not sure.”

  
“D’ya think it’s a martian ship?”

  
Red scoffed, giving Flip a rough punch in the shoulder. His hair was tied back, dyed a fiery red. “Martians ain’t real, knucklehead! It’s the moon men ya gotta watch out fer, else they try’n cut yer head open and take yer thoughts outta ya!”

  
“And one of ‘em crashed on top of Johnny?” Flip frowned, staring down at the smoking wreck.

  
The one named Red nodded, solemnly, “John-boy was sayin’ early yesterday that he found a nice date in Junkertown. Was gonna take ‘em out on a night ride. Shame… Well! In Johnny’s memory, let’s crack that puppy open and-”

  
_ Hisssss-pop!  _ The jarring sound came from down below in the crater, Mako creeping up as the gangers started hollering. A metal hatch flew out and nearly hit Flip in the face, dodged just in time to dig itself into the windshield of one of the Dingo Wagons. 

  
The dingoes went wild, barking up a storm and nearly dragging their handlers with them as they leaped down into the smoke. They caught a whiff of  _ something _ down in that smoke, the gnashing of teeth and ravenous barks were replaced with startled whines and howls as the flashing light of electrical sparks illuminated the clearing smoke.

  
Flip turned around quickly as he ducked, narrowly avoiding that hatch and catching sight of Mako out in the open. “R-R-R-Red!” His partner-in-crime was absorbed by the excitement of what the dingoes were going crazy over.

  
“What’re ya all doin’? Get in there,” Red shouted over the dingoes as only  _ four  _ out of the six dingoes came out of that thinning smoke with their tails behind their legs, whimpering and crying back to the trucks. He caught a panicked slap on the shoulder from Flip, twisting around, “What’re ya- Shit! It’s the Hog!” Red took a step back, nearly falling in the crater as Mako approached openly. No sense in trying to hide when you were as large as Mako was.

  
It happened almost all at once. A shout from the wreckage, “Boss! Two of ‘em got roasted!” And then another ganger called out, “D’ya think it’s radioactive? Maybe we can eat it!”

  
Red glanced behind him to the crater and then back at the Hog, “What d’ya want, Hog! We found it first, our mate’s trapped under that thing. We found it first!”

  
**“Your mate’s dead.”** Mako stated.  **“Meteorite like that? Said he was out on a drive, him and his friend are dead. No tracks leading away. Blood won’t ruin the Star Metal any, though.”**

**  
**A scream came out of the crater, a jolted and hitched sound like an engine stalling before going silent. “It shocked ‘im! It’s rabid!” Then another shout, “It ain’t rabid! It electrocuted ‘im, he’s dead!”

  
That piqued Mako’s interest, even as Flip and Red were both unsheathing heavy knives from their belts. He stepped forward as they both moved away from him, as scared of  _ Roadhog _ as much as they were of  _ whatever _ was killing their men in the smoke.

  
Then they saw it, standing atop the wreckage of a solid sphere was a large rodent. Sparks flew from the torn electrical wires it held in both hands, the corpses of two dingoes and another ganger laying at the bottom of the satellite and the wreckage of whatever car that the space-thing had originally crashed into… At least, Mako  _ thought _ it was a car.

  
The last two dingo wranglers were trying to catch the thing off-guard, carefully weighing their odds with heavy metal pipes, barbed with jagged metal bits, versus electrical wires that popped and crackled at the slightest motion.

  
“You help us, Hog, and we’ll split the Star Metal with ya,” Red called out. “Swarm it! It can’t take us all on at once!”

  
They charged in, but Mako stood back. With a calculated move, he unraveled the hook at his side.  **“No.”** The wide sweep caught Flip and Red in a single swing and, with a  _ whoosh! _ , wrapped around them both, binding them together, and yanking them out to the Dingo Wagons. He left them there, unhooking the chain off his belt; they weren’t gonna be getting away anytime soon.

  
“Yeow! Shit! Rat’s got a nasty bite,” one of the two remaining gangers yelped as his metal bat nearly whacked the rodent across the skull, glancing off one of the wires instead and sending a jolting shock down his arm and rendering it numb. His arm shivered as muscles spasmed and his bat was dropped. Mako grabbed the man by the head,  **“It’s not a rat.”** The ganger was scared into silence as he was tossed back, scrambling and climbing out of the crater as Mako went in.

  
He was too late to scare off the last ganger, the poor bastard catching one of the sparking wires to the gut. The rodent slammed both cords in, sending a visibly trembling man into a shocking demise. It turned its attention to Mako and the large Junker recognized a smart creature when he saw one.

  
**“I’m a friend.”** He said as it waved a wire threateningly at him.  **“Not with them.”**

**  
** Whatever it was, it wasn’t like any rat or rodent he ever saw. Too big, too smart. Mako turned and climbed back out and over the lip of the crater, rumbling as he shook Flip and Red both free from his hook and chains.  **“Get out. Not splitting it. Mine.”**

**  
**Neither of them protested, scrambling into the trucks and driving off with screeching tires. They left the jeep behind in their haste and Mako set to work on stripping it clean before they were gone into the horizon. With a grunt, he yanked the upholstery and seats out of the vehicle, tossing it aside as he searched for good loot. A canteen, an ammo box full of homemade shells, a set of old bungee cords, and even a flare gun. Not bad loot and Bruce would appreciate the jeep for scrap or even just transport.

  
Then Mako turned his attention back to the crater, leaving the jeep for now to check up on his new-found friend.  **“Hey!”** He saw the rodent rummaging through the pockets of the men it killed. It was smart, small, and vulnerable out here. What kind of man would he be to leave a defenseless, adorable creature like this out to die?  **“Need a lift?"**

**  
**It squeaked at him. Mako wasn’t too sure what it meant, though he concluded it was an affirmative answer as it scurried out of the crater and crawled up onto his shoulder. **“Nice. Gonna get the Beast, then we can tow your pod.”  
  
** It took no time at all. Mako’s immense strength carried the rodent’s space pod with no trouble, rolling it up and out of the crater with ease. It was a tight fit but the Beast and the pod both squeezed into the open back of the jeep without the seats inside anymore. The jeep’s engine roared to life with a satisfying rumble, a triumphant laugh leaving Mako as he not only got some good loot but made a new friend.

  
**“Come on. I know a guy, called Bruce. He can fix your pod up, little guy.”**


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako takes his new found furry companion to his friend Bruce. Turns out, his new friend doesn't need any help in repairing his pod.

“So, what’s his name?”  
  
Mako paused for a second, looking his new friend over as he scurried about his pod and was actually _fixing_ it, doing the work himself. He came to Bruce to help fix what he assumed was his _ship_ and, in the end, they both ended up watching him work.  
  
Bruce’s Junk Pit was on the south side of Junkertown, cushioned nicely by the city’s southern gates. The rear yard was littered with chaotic piles of scrap, protected by razor-wire topped chain link fences, if they could even be called fences, reinforced by rebar with only glimpses of the inside that no one could hope of squeezing through. Mako’s new friend was in his element here and the large Junker had, after trading in the jeep that the Dingo Drivers had left behind, for the rodent to scavenge through.  
  
**“Haven’t asked him yet.”** Roadhog remarked as he scratched an itch on his side.  
  
“You… haven’t asked ‘im yet? I don’t think he’s likely to tell ya, Mako,” Bruce glanced over at their new friend as he worked. Sparks flew out of the pod now and then, the fluffy creature emerging only to scurry back down into the pile of components that Mako had piled onto the floor for the critter. “But hell, he is somethin’.”  
  
Mako nodded, a rumbling chuckle left him, **“Yeah. Had a feeling you’d agree, Bruce.”** ****  
  
“Whatcha gonna do with ‘im,” Bruce asked as he pulled a rag from his toolbelt, wiping his stained hands. “He can’t go walkin’ around, someone’ll take a likin’ to the thought of eatin’ ‘im. He ain’t gonna last long on his own, either, and… well, I’ve never even seen tech like that, Mako. Jus’ a car mechanic, I ain’t a rocket scientist.”  
  
**“How’s it going, pal?”** Mako tapped the hull of the round pod, it was a _perfect_ sphere. The sparks and hissing from inside stopped for a moment and the friendly rodent gave what seemed to be a thumbs up. **“It’s going good, then,”** Mako concluded.  
  
Bruce and Mako observed the critter at work for a while. The hatch at the top of the pod slammed shut, leaving both men to observe curiously. Something whirred within the pod, sputtering for a moment before a panel started to smoothly slide open to reveal lens as a neon-green circle started to flicker to life before becoming steady. And then a monotone voice rose from the pod, first soft and then growing in volume until it spoke calmly and loud enough for them to hear.  
  
_“Running audio diagnostics. A-E-I-O-U. She sells sea shells by the sea shore, she sells sea shells for a dollar. If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch?”_  
  
It paused, _“Running visual diagnostic.”_  
  
The lens whirred softly as the lit eye looked up, down, left, right, and then tilted in every direction between.  
  
“Well, shit,” Bruce remarked as Mako observed silently. “Little feller is really _somethin’._ ”  
  
It continued, _“Running mobility diagnostics.”_  
  
Four ‘legs’ rose up from the spherical pod, moving forward, back, and side-to-side like a crab. Mako rumbled in thought, just watching the whole thing, **“Neat.”**  
  
_“Hello.”_ The pod spoke after it’s initial diagnostics were done. _“Thank you for saving me from those people and dogs, I would not have made it out if you did not come.”_  
  
**“You’re welcome,”** Mako said. **“Got a name?”**  
  
_“Hammond. But it is a name given to me by those who made me what I am. They were jailors, experimented on me and others. I want a new life.”_  
  
Bruce clapped his hands once, rolling his shoulders in a shrug, “Nice ta meet ya, Hammond. Junkertown is good a place as any to start over. Better’n out there on the wasteland. And considerin’ yer a small feller, might not be easy.”  
  
Hammond seemed to nod, the pod bobbing its body up-and-down once. _“Yes. That is true.”_  
  
**“Maybe the arena?”** Mako rumbled his idea, **“Bot fights, blood sports. Dangerous but with your pod, you could enter.”** ****  
  
Hammond paused in thought, _“Thinking…”_ The pod bobbed its body again, _“Yes. I will do that. I suppose you could assist me in finding armaments? I believe I already have ideas for suitable modifications.”_  
  
**“Yeah,”** Mako answered and Bruce nodded.  
  
_“But I shall abandon the name ‘Hammond’. It does not suit me, it is the name of a different life,”_ the pod announced. _“I know what I will be. Call me… Wrecking Ball.”_


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako, Bruce, and Wrecking Ball prepare for the upcoming tournament. The Chrome Slasher, ten-year reigning champion of the Queen, is returning to Junkertown to defend its title and presents Wrecking Ball the opportunity to make a name for himself in his new home... or die trying.

The next few weeks seemed to go by without much fanfare for Mako. Wrecking Ball, whom became known to Mako and Bruce as _’Wrecker’_ stayed at the Junk Pit and worked diligently. In the meantime, Mako did his usual bounty hunting and finding scrap to wheel back to Bruce.  
  
The Junkerqueen had apparently announced something big, Mako surmised from the look that Bruce was giving him when he came back one day.  
  
“Y’got that blood sports idea in his noggin,” Bruce explained as he wiped grease on the front of his shirt. “Been all the little feller’s thinkin’ about.”  
  
The large Junker followed Bruce inside, setting his latest burlap sack of scrap, car bits, and jagged metal pieces. Anything could be smelted back down and reshaped into whatever Bruce needed.  
  
Mako furrowed his brow as he looked down at the ragged poster on the table. The thin plates of tin were crudely welded together in that amateurish fashion that had become almost signature to the Junker style, various scraps of parchment and dried dingo hide made the ‘paper’ with splashes of garishly colorful paint. _Don’t matter if it don’t look pretty, as long as it worked.  
  
_Bruce’s Junk Pit had become a sort of rendezvous point for the pair as Mako helped Wrecking Ball get accustomed to Junker life. Took him to the arena, showed him the sights, anything that the little space hamster wanted to do during their breaks from fixing up the pod. The arena had been the goal.  
  
**_THE LIGHTNING CLASH OF THE CENTURY! THE THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER, THE DOME RETURNS TO JUNKERTOWN!  
  
_****_PREPARE FOR THE MONTH LONG THUNDERSTORM AS STEEL CRASHES AGAINST STEEL. THE CHROME SLASHER RETURNS AS 10-YEAR REIGNING CHAMP TO WIN THE QUEEN’S FAVOR ONCE AGAIN! A HUNDRED BOTS! ONE CHAMPION!  
  
_****_IF YOU’RE A JUNKER WITH A BLOODTHIRSTY TIN CAN AND A PASSION FOR OLD FASHIONED BOT-ON-BOT MURDER, SIGN UP AT THE STADIUM TODAY!  
  
_**_– No entry or repair fees compensated for applicants who are dismembered, disemboweled, slashed, stabbed, burned, incinerated, pulverized, etc. etc  
__\- Total fights based on total applicants, may or may not exceed a hundred._  


**“Gonna have barkers shoutin’ ‘bout this from here to Z-Town,”** the large Junker rumbled. **“Poster’s lyin’, though. Gonna be more like 40, maybe 50 tops. But prize is good, Queen’s Favor is… anything you could wish for, long as it’s in her power to do it, and there ain’t much she can’t do. Best chance to talk to her, too, without savin’ her life or knowin’ her from the War.”  
  
****“Debut in this and win… Hell, even the Wall’s gonna shake. Thunder Dome is one of the biggest events. Chrome Slasher ain’t a joke, cuts through any bot that steps inside that arena,”** Mako exhaled a heavy sigh, something eating at him from the inside that he didn’t want to say. **“It’s never lost a fight, ten years is like immortality in the ring.”**  
  
The hamster, formerly named Hammond and newly dubbed Wrecking Ball, crawled up onto the table and read the flyer. He squeaked and his mech translated, “You have told me about this. That I could die in that arena. But there is nowhere I can go to live in peace, not without becoming cooked over a fire.”  
  
**“Wouldn’t let that happen,”** Mako commented.  
  
Wrecking Ball squeaked some more, wiping some dirt and grease off his face. The pod paused before continuing, “That is why I must do this and defeat the Chrome Slasher. I will join this tournament and make my name as Wrecking Ball.”  
  
Mako nodded, he knew he couldn’t stop the little fella from trying and he knew his new friend had the right stuff for it. **“You sure about this?”**  
  
“Yes.”  
  
**“A’ight,”** Mako looked over at Bruce. **“I’ll sign him up.”**

 

  
_A few weeks later..._  
  
It seemed to happen all in a blur. Wrecking Ball, who had been nicknamed ‘Wrecker’ by his new friends and the roaring crowd, could hardly believe that his short life had led up to this. The first few fights were small time, his pod-turned-mech had decimated the competition; out of the advertised hundred, and Mako’s estimated forty or fifty, the actual turnout was twenty-five. A poor year in terms of attendance but that only meant more spotlight for Wrecking Ball to take center stage as the gossip of Junkertown; no one were prepared for a perfectly spherical mech to appear out on the arena floor and he became the crowd’s favorite mysterious underdog.

 

The large arena was littered with the parts and bodies of destroyed mechs. Junkers didn’t clean up until after the event was over, recycling the scrap for use elsewhere - guns, construction, tools. Owners of destroyed omnics had to fight for the best parts and build them back up from nothing and that’s what made the _Chrome Slasher_ so dangerous. Barkers on the street called the _Slasher_ immortal, immortality incarnate, having never lost a single round.  
  
The last match before he faced the dreaded _Chrome Slasher_ , Wrecking Ball had bashed the Slasher’s greatest rival, _Crusher,_ in a dizzying display of disorienting dominance. The omnic’s namesake was true to its name, it crushed, it smashed, and it bludgeoned for years in the shadow of the _Chrome Slasher_ and, along with the sudden arrival of this round underdog, this was the closest that the _Crusher_ came to facing off against the Queen’s Champion. The biped _Crusher_ stood on two powerful legs, almost squatting as it stood with large, round scrap-forged boulders at the end of each arm that gave the gladiator omnic its namesake.  
  
Speed was a factor in these gladiatorial matches - if you weren’t fast, you were dead, and Wrecking Ball not only had the advantage of speed but the most _high grade_ of materials that Junkers only dreamed about, rummaging through satellite and meteorite crashes hoping for just small pieces of the famously-dubbed Star Metal.  
  
Wrecking Ball took some dents to his exterior plating but it was scrapes and bruises compared to his competition. In a stunning final blow, he fired his grappling hook overhead, soaring over _Crusher_ before attaching itself to an overhead support beam. He rocketed forward, slamming into the omnic’s visual sensory front, smashing glass and throwing sparks as his opponent forward. Wrecking Ball bounced back as the crowd roared, throwing smoke across the littered arena as he revved and screeched across the floor like a rubber tire on black asphalt. There was no rubber on the pod’s exterior, but the clever hamster was playing up a performance, throwing out smoke grenades and blasting the sound of tires screeching on speakers to excite his audience. Surprisingly, it worked.  
  
The announcer chimed in just in time, exciting the bloodthhirst of the crowd, _“Let it rip, Wrecker!”_  
  
He crashed between the powerful legs of _Crusher_ , smashing the omnic’s body and further destroying its legs that once held it upright as the runner-up champion, second to the _Chrome Slasher_ .  
  
Sparks flew and the immobile gladiator omnic was helpless as Wrecking Ball skittered on top with his four legs. The crowd went wild as _Crusher_ cried out wordlessly in pain and a last crying beg for mercy. The single ocular lens of Wrecking Ball looked around, watching the crowd cheer his name.  
  
_Wrecker! Wrecker! Wrecker! Wrecker!_  
  
The mech’s pilot felt that rush of adrenaline that victory brought, surging with pride as he announced, firing the grappling hook up a second time to latch onto another of the overhead support beams and slowly rising up.  
  
**_“I’m gonna wreck it!”_ **

  
From the crowd, Mako watched the sight. _Hell, that’s an old movie quote. What kind of movies would a hamster watch, anyway?_ He never recalled the hamster talking about movies up in space, Wrecker never said much about where he came from and the large Junker wasn’t one to pry into anyone’s private life.  
  
The crowd ate it up like a buffet, cheering and hollering as _Crusher_ was smashed to pieces, sending oil and metal pieces scattering across the arena. Now it was only a matter of time before the final match with the _Chrome Slasher_ , the champion of the Queen and ruler of the Junkertown Coliseum.  
  
Mako fought in this arena before, it brought him back to years ago, fighting alongside Chloe and then against her for leadership… He won but surrendered rulership to her - politics wasn’t his calling. Leadership was her calling, it seemed, and he couldn’t help but look when he saw her overlooking the event on her throne, congratulating the winner of each tier of the tournament but now she paid special attention to Wrecking Ball. He could see that the tension and excitement in the air was thick, everyone was itching to see how this would play out in the end.  
  
It was only a matter of time, the final match of the tournament was tomorrow. Wrecking Ball would either emerge victorious or die.


End file.
